Work and Family As Constituents of Sense of Coherence

Abstract

In this article, the authors focus on the intersection of the sense of coherence (SOC) and professional career in the light of qualitative data. They analyze the career descriptions written by young physicians in response to an open question in a survey questionnaire. In these narrative accounts, respondents who scored high on the SOC scale did not always orientate to work in a predictable way. Visiting narrative theoretization and feminist critique, the authors suggest a reflective survey style that seeks in the research process not so much an endeavor to reach a preexisting truth but, rather, a dialogue aimed at explaining the phenomenon at hand in a meaningful, agency-enabling way.